Month: November 2011

Halloween in our house, as you might have deduced, is a month-long (well, maybe even a tiny bit more than a month-long) celebration. We tend to haul up the box of decorations as soon as the first rainy week in September forces us to spend a long afternoon indoors. Russ then comes home to find our house (and, ahem, yard) transformed into Transylvania. Less is more? Nah, we’re not buying into that.

So it’s safe to say that by the time November finally flips onto the stage, I am done with the skeletons and the bats and the candy. I’m sooo done with the candy. The candy drives me crazy (I know; I’m a fun-killer). Theo got up this morning asking for candy. Theo came home from school asking for candy. Theo is beside me right now asking for candy. Grrr.

We knew this child had a sweet tooth the first time Russ gave him a bite of chocolate. I’ve never seen someone react the way he did–instant smile and wiggles. And then the cute and innocent stage was over, and he’s been begging for sugar ever since.

a chocoholic is born, October 2009

As much as I loathe the loot, I love the actual trick-or-treating. Our neighborhood is amazing; there are over fifty kids and half of them bring friends, so once it gets going, it’s a non-stop parade of cuteness for a couple of hours. All the grown-ups get into the fun, too. It’s one big block party and when the weather cooperates, like it did last night, it is incredible. It’s the Halloween little kids dream of.

Russ’s description? Surf-n-turf.

This family takes its costumes seriously. If given his way, Tucker would pull together the creepiest, most devilish, most gruesome get-up known to man. He starts jockeying for an R-rated costume as soon as the first catalog arrives: gravediggers, zombies with flesh dripping off their faces, grim reapers with blood flowing down their scythes–all of these costumes, for some reason (remember, he is a very spiritual kid) appeal to him, so the minute he and Jack decide on something non-garish, I jump on it. This year’s choice (after about 140 failed suggestions) was an interesting pair: Wario and Waluigi from Mario Brothers (yes, I’m rolling my eyes).

I had to look it up (thank you, internet) to find out that these two purply, cartoonish characters are actually bad guys, which means Tucker did manage to pull a fast one. “But I own a gold mine!” Tucker kept saying when I inquired about the criminal behavior of these two. “And we’re brothers!” Jack added. Ok, then.

Theo was originally going to be a dolphin, but he saw the red of this suit when we were searching online for costumes, and it was all she wrote. Seeing as he loves butter, too, we thought this was the perfect outfit for him.

Trains represented here, too…

Back view showing all the tentacles. As a crustacean, you can’t have too many tentacles.

Tucker as Wario, Theo the Lobster, Jack as Waluigiand Russ…as the Chicken.

To catch you up to speed on the importance of a good costume, humor me as I present a brief History of Herakovich Halloweens (or at least those for which I had readily available photos)…

2007Jack as Remy the Rat from Ratatouille. Marks the start of his rat-phase.

Tucker as Monkey. Not a big leap…2007

Superman and Batman, Halloween 2008

Theo as a Baby Dinosaur for his 1st Halloween, 2008(starting his sad series of hand-me-down costumes)

Tucker as an Astronaut; Jack as Scooby DooRuss’s office party, 2009

Jack still as Scooby Doo; Tucker as Bumblebee the TransformerHalloween 2009 (yes, Tuck had 2 costumes)

Before we officially shut down this Halloween party, I’d like to share with you the two greatest items we’ve ever received while trick-or-treating…

a $1 bill(from an NBA basketball player who lived in our neighborhood–actually, it was from the NBA player’s assistant, who was manning the NBA player’s front porch on Halloween…)

and…

a package of paper plates.(Yes, seriously. Because “sorry, we ran out of candy” just didn’t seem right.)

And so another October has come and gone. This morning, Theo and I packed up the yard art and the inflatable skull. We took down the flying bat and the Halloween banner. We spun the ceramic pumpkins back around to the plain side, instead of the side spelling “B-O-O” (they get a pass until Thanksgiving). And one of us might have packed up (er, thrown out) some candy.

We’re done with the cinnamon and spice and black and orange. We’re done with gourds–every size, shape, and color of them.

Bring on the evergreen. Trot out the jingle bells. Break out the Advent calendar. We’re ready…but we are being patient. Thanksgiving comes first.